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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child came on stage at the Palace Theater in London. The piece has won nine unpublished Olivier awards in the UK. Photo: AAP
We all have a history of origin Harry Potter . Mine, in a predictable way, is both unsatisfactory and embarrbading. I read Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone at the university and, full of superiority at the undergraduate level, I decided that the prose was clumsy and that the l & # 39; story was tedious. It would be, I predict with confidence, a wonder of five minutes.
Given this moment of brilliant literary criticism, it was a bit embarrbading to be invited to London to see the eighth and final episode of the saga, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – this one is not a book, nor a movie, but a play. I knew that I was not worthy; I knew that many people would kill for such an invitation. But it would be a chance to be in London in the summer; it would be the West End in all its glory; it would be … well, there was no way to miss out on me. So I said yes, I hid the books Harry Potter in my carry-on, I arranged my face in what I hoped to be a smile receptive to a wizard and I left
a fan of Harry Potter the enormity of people's love for this orphan boy and his magical world is disconcerting. In the 21 years since The Philosopher's Stone has been published, more than 500 million – or half a billion – Potter books sold in 79 languages, including Azerbaijani, Welsh, Latin and Ancient Greek. ( The Philosopher's Stone is apparently the longest work of the latter since the novel Aethiopica in the third century). And the series of films Harry Potter – famous for his servile precision in books – is the third largest film franchise of all time, with its nine titles (including the Fantastic Beasts turn-off) by more than $ 8.53 billion, to $ 35 billion, once DVD and merchandise sales are included. Only franchises Avengers and Star Wars won more. Individually, seven of the eight films Harry Potte were among the 50 most lucrative films of all time.
And now there is the play. A new story, rather than an adaptation of an earlier plot, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opened in London in 2016. It takes place in two parts, and can be seen during a single afternoon and evening, or more than two consecutive nights, as a Harry Potter mini- Ring Cycle .
He was incredibly successful. In 2017, Cursed Child won a prize awarded to nine Olivier, before moving to the Lyric Theater on Broadway in April for a cost of $ 92 million, making it the most expensive non-musical piece of Broadway. (Most plays cost between $ 4 and $ 6.5 million, and even musicals rarely exceed $ 35 million). Of course, $ 44 million was spent to pay Cirque Du Soleil, which used the Lyric, to go elsewhere, and to turn the barn-like theater into an appropriately Gothic high-hogwartian space with a river. of monogrammed boxes. "carpets, phoenix sconces and gilded dragon lamps, but $ 42 million was spent on the game itself, including $ 15.8 million to build sets and build physical production, $ 4.2 million for pay the cast, and $ 15 million for general and administrative expenses, advertising and advertising.
Fortunately for investors, even before opening its doors in New York, the show reported 2.7 million dollars per week in tickets for previews, and last month he won six Tonys.On both sides of the Atlantic, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was presented as the most immersive and dazzling theatrical experience in decades
In January, this show will arrive in Australia The Princess Theater of Melbourne, under renovation, is being prepared. of 42 places is about to be confirmed, with tickets on sale August 6th. The crew of 70 people gathers together, and the huge and magnificent sets – full of clocks and arches and a color of paint called Raven Plume – are already in the train
The Harry Potter novels have been translated into 79 languages. Photo: Alamy
Of course, Cursed Child is, according to one badysis, simply proof that the fundamental two-year question about Harry Potter deserves to be asked. Why Is Harry Potter so incredibly popular and ubiquitous? What is there about the young wizard with the lightning scar that has captivated so many people who live, not just in Australia or the West, but on earth? There are only 7.6 billion people on this planet: there is a story Harry Potter printed for each in 15 of them
Theory The more credible for this popularity is perhaps anthropological. According to folklorists, there are some recurring archetypes in the stories that humans tell each other that we are wired to find satisfying and enjoyable. These archetypes, for reasons of evolutionary logic (and because, well, they make twists) are virtually universal – they cross geographical, cultural and religious boundaries – and have been in operation for millennia. They do not all appear in all stories; but just about every one of them plays a role in Harry Potter .
Consider the trope of villainy. According to the eternal rules of narration, at the beginning of the action of any story, a villain must appear. This villain must continue to hurt a close family member of the hero or friendship group, thus putting the plot in motion. (Think of Iliade and Beowulf Think of Superman .) In the case of Harry Potter his mother and father are killed by the uber-villain Witchcraft, Voldemort
Then, often, comes branding, when the hero is marked in a way that signifies his quest (Harry receives a lightning-shaped scar). Then there is the departure, when the hero leaves his house and the actual adventure begins (Harry leaves his horrible non-magic family [muggle] to go to the Hogwarts School of Magic and Witchcraft) . Subsequently, variously and in no particular order, survive the ordeals, the transfiguration of appearance, the receipt of magical objects, the acquisition of knowledge, the acquisition of donors (speak for wise men or friends), using cards, answering puzzles and defeating false heroes, until finally and inevitably, the true hero wins recognition and victory
This can seem a lot to ask any story, but JK Rowling, the then single mother who was writing in Edinburgh cafes because she could not afford the heating, delivers each element: each time, book after book
On the way to England, suspended in the air obscurity of Kochi, India (where you can read Harry Potter in Tamil, Hindi and malayalam, as well as in English), my glowing airplane reading light com me the tip of Harry Potter's magic wand, open The Philosopher's Stone for the first time in 20 years. I find myself enjoying the holiday descriptions, and the main hall of Hogwarts, and the endless inventive lollipops. I like Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and poor Neville Longbottom and Hedwig the owl. I'm not too upset with Harry, who is a little nice to my taste. But above Belgrade (Serbian-Cyrillic alphabet or Latin – Hungarian, Slovak, Croatian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Albanian), I am surprised when I finish it.
Illustration by Simon Letch.
Eleven years ago, after the release of the last book Harry Potte it seemed like it was for Rowling and Potter. She had written seven books in 10 years; she had her protagonist in high school, her first kiss, and the ultimate defeat of evil. Along the way, she went from the penniless author to an initial print run of 500 copies to billionaire megastar whose final artwork was sold (sold, unprinted) to 14 million dollars. In its first 24 hours after publication. She had literally made a billion dollars; founded a multi-million pound research clinic to fight multiple sclerosis that killed his mother; married a family doctor and two other children; and writes four books entirely independent of Harry Potter. She seemed financially, professionally and personally happy.
For more than a decade, Rowling has stuck to her guns, saying no to more books (though she wrote Apocryphal Potters), no to more movies (though she embarked on Fantastic Beasts derived series in 2016), not at most new merchandising partnerships, and not at the whimsical fringe of her fan base (including suing a man who planned to publish a Potter encyclopedia of 400 pages). That makes Harry Potter and the Cursed Child even more interesting. Because all of a sudden, after all this time, Rowling said yes.
You might think that she had done it for money. It's a little known fact of the entertainment industry that sells live theater. Or, more correctly, he can sell. According to legend, only one in five Broadway shows is money, but if you win, you will really make money. The musical The Lion King for example, is the most successful single work in any media in the history of entertainment, with a global total of less than $ 11 billion. It's more than any film ever made or any book ever written. (The most successful film of all time, Avatar is worth $ 3.8 billion). Of course, Harry Potter is not a musical – but with a franchise and such a valuable mark, it may not be necessary to be it. The Lion King ran without interruption for 21 years; experts suggest The life of the child cursed could be as long
The financial arrangements of any production are unique and, certainly in this case, shrouded in mystery. But in March, the New York Times reported that the investment papers filed with the New York Attorney General's office indicated that the "owner of the underlying rights, the licensor and their affiliates " Cursed Child The group that includes Rowling will initially receive 31 percent of the net profits of the coin, eventually reaching 41 percent as" the game gets closer to profitability ". This means that if the play lasts for years, the profits will be beyond the mortal man.
But, as Rowling herself has said, "We all know that I do not need money. So why do it? Or more precisely, why let others do it? Because the truth is, Rowling did not conceive of a single set, nor directed a single scene, nor wrote a single page of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child .
London is hot and ridiculously festive. a Wednesday afternoon seized by the hysterical excitement that invades the English whenever the sun shines. At the Palace Theater in the West End, half an hour before the start of the first part of Cursed Child people (many dressed in Hogwarts paraphernalia) move around in a state of almost Frenzy, squeezing their tickets and getting their bags checked and queuing in the beautiful curved stairs of the palace. (Here, in the center of Victorian London Hogwarts, very little theater renovation was required.)
Just inside the huge oak and brbad entry doors, I'm sure there's no need for me. buy a little owl from Hedwig for my daughter, and avoid saying only up to four novel in the series. They are, I must say, more and more about me. It's mostly the decor that I love: the depth and effortless detail of the world that Rowling creates. This is what publishers call "fully realized" – as a video game where one never reaches the edge of the virtual landscape.
I photograph the blue-gray background of the wallpaper "H for Hogwarts", walking down the thick steps and take my red velvet seat. A moment later, the curtain rises on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child . Simultaneously, the issuing directive at #KeepTheSecret breaks down, clearly relieving me of the responsibility to tell you something about it. The script itself was released in 2016 (and quickly became the first piece of history to appear on Amazon's bestseller list, four million copies sold in one single week in the United States and the United Kingdom). years. But it is still considered infra dig to disclose the details of the plot.
So, alert spoiler! Cursed Child takes place 19 years after the end of the stories of Harry Potter, beginning at the epilogue of Deathly Hallows . Harry is now in his thirties, a harbaded official at the Department of Magic (Hermione Granger), married to Ginny Weasley, and father of two Gryffindor children and a cunning Slytherin. This middle child – Albus – hates Hogwarts. But while he is there, he becomes friends with an unlikely related mind, and sets out to prove that he is the equal of his father. Cue drama! In two parts! More than five hours!
For the record, let's say Cursed Child never feels long, even for a non-Potter fan. There are some confusing moments, but the action unfolds like the Hogwarts Express, and the special effects are terribly magical. Sometimes, in fact, it sounds a bit like a musical: big actors, big coordinated movements, great dramatic lighting and an acting game. But the tone is perfectly in agreement with the novels. That's exactly what Rowling would have written. Except that she did not do it.
London theater producer Sonia Friedman. Photo: John Davis
In what appears to be his only extended interview Cursed Child with US broadcaster CBS, Rowling describes his feeling back to Harry Potter after 10 years. "You know, I was not in a hurry, and the truth is that it was only when Sonia came to see me … that I started thinking:" D & D Okay, what you're proposing is something that I could be creative about. " … and if I'm honest, it was the prospect [that] that Sonia and Colin offered me: the chance to work with two people that I found extraordinary.
Finally, some mysteries of Cursed Child we are allowed to speak Who is Sonia, who is Colin, and who are these two other people whom Rowling finds extraordinary?
I meet Colin Callender during the interval of Cursed Child in a small antechamber in the bowels of the Palace: the kind of gilded little room where Meghan Markle could throw his shoes at halftime at a Royal Command Performance Callender is (mainly) a television movie producer, the kind of heavy hitter that the industry magazines regularly call a "mogul." For nearly 20 years, he has been one HBO's most influential directors, where his productions have won 104 Emmys and 29 Golden Globes, seated on a velvet lounge chair, he's short-haired and looking, with small round glbades and a suit. Very pale, it is l & # 3; 9, one of the main engines that created the Cursed Child . "We knew that Jo [Rowling] had been approached many times for [theatre] the rights of Harry Potter ," he recalls brilliantly. "Above all, people wanted to do musicals, who did not care, or big events in the stadiums, but the way we designed the room was like this piece of low tech on a stage bench.It was the emotional and psychological landscape of Harry Potter we wanted to explore. "
He leans forward on his velvet chair." What we wanted to do, basically, was to answer a single question. "How Harry Potter, the boy who lived under the stairs, without parents and without good adults around him, grows up to become an adult? boy, who never had a father, learn to be dad? "he s & # 39; sits. "Sonia" is Sonia Friedman, a second legendary producer, this time at the theater, mainly in the West End of London. She has produced over 180 plays and has friends such as writer Tom Stoppard and director Sam Mendes. When they say legend in the West End, they think so: Friedman's first job interview, for a post as a machinist in adolescence, was with Laurence Olivier. Early in her career, she was sitting next to British playwright Harold Pinter, Nobel laureate, holding his screenplay while watching rehearsals, pausing at his direction.
We meet in his award-winning West End offices. Friedman is small, with blond hair tangled and suspicious, slightly vulnerable. She has thought a lot about this issue of paternity, she admits. "I had a father who was a brilliant public man, but who failed as a father," she says. (His father was the famous violinist and conductor Leonard Friedman: he abandoned Friedman's mother and siblings before she was born, and she barely saw it grow.) "He failed in true basics I've talked for two hours about dads, fathers, disappointment, inheritance, parenting. "
She looks on one side, thinking." Jo and I just had a very, very emotional, very intense, very emotional conversation, actually, especially for me, because we met in Edinburgh and my father lived and died in Edinburgh. "She wraps up her long black cardigan around her. "And of course, I did not really know him, but being up there with that very peculiar smell – Edinburgh has that smell of brewing hops and yeast, incredibly powerful – and the cobblestones and all , my whole life suddenly shone in front of me, and I told Colin, "If my father had known, he would have been so proud of me, about to knock on JK Rowling's door. And then, of course, I burst into tears. "
Oh my god," I said, "No, no," Friedman said firmly, "Colin was great, he supported me and said," Come on, get hold of yourself. " And I pushed through the front door and 10 minutes later I talk to Jo about my father, my fathers and fathers, 19659007] In an interview in 2012, Rowling explained that she had not spoken to her own father, Peter Rowling, in nine years.It did not specify what had happened between them, but in 2003 he offered his first editions Harry Potter for sale at Sotheby's A, a copy of The Fire Cup was signed "Lots of love from your firstborn" , and sold for $ 49 000. So maybe Rowling is also interested in the complexity of father-child relationships.
Certainly, Friedman and Callender left their first meeting with Rowling with specific instructions: " Come back if you want You can find a writer and a director who understand world. "
First, they found John Tiffany, Tiffany is a successful director in London and Broadway, his plays tend to be beautiful, emotional, and discreet, but he would never have come close to something that approached the glory of Harry Potter .He, however, had a strange connection with Rowling herself.When he was deputy director of the Traverse Theater of Edinburgh about twenty years ago he often saw a young woman at the cafe-theater. "I kept seeing this woman with a pram hand writing," he remembers. no real conversation, but we were saying hello, she sat down with a cappuccino for three hours – I think she was always a little worried that I was going to chase her.a few months later, I realized that this woman had been Rowling. "
When they met again to talk about Cursed Child Rowling also remembered Tiffany. "He was very nice to me," she told CBS. "Let me sit there for ages with my coffee." Rowling, it seems, does not forget the people who were kind to her before she was famous.
Tiffany was brought on board because of her ability to produce quiet and powerful theater. "Colin and Sonia initially imagined something much smaller – a lot more psychological," he recalls. "But after reading the books to my nephews and godchildren, I told them," Listen, you can do all that, but you must also give people an epic and mbadive story, or the theater will make Harry Potter boring. ! Can you imagine? Harry in the psychiatrist's chair? That would have confirmed everyone's worst fears about the drama! "
To avoid this fate, Tiffany called his friend, a young five-time winner-BAFTA writer named Jack Thorne, with whom he had worked on the theatrical adaptation of the Swedish vampire novel Let the Right One In . "He writes very well on young people," says Tiffany. "And he was a big fan of Harry Potter."
The two went to meet Rowling in Edinburgh in 2014. "We had a whole day in Jo's writing room at her home, "says Tiffany." And immediately it just seemed right. "They spent six months meeting in Edinburgh and London, with Thorne mapping ideas for 39, stories and drawing scenes.
Rowling was a constant presence, a sounding board and a source of knowledge. "For obvious reasons, I had the power to veto everything," she said. "I could say," No, it did not happen. "But often, we were All three of us sat there and were trying to finalize something, and one of the guys was saying, "Well, why not …" and I had that feeling: "Oh yes, of course, that Is what happened. & # 39; It looked like a search, and that's how I know I'm on the right track: when I feel like I'm actually discovering a story that's already there. "
Tiffany still remembers when, after several of these meetings, Thorne sent him the first 30 pages of his project." He was very, very nervous, "he remembers," but as soon as I get it, I do not know. I had, I thought, "Oh yes, I can do that, it's a play." "Tiffany remembers doing the game in two parts," despite the difficulty, the cost and the logistics "Workshops with actors, solving unique stagecraft problems (" Yes, we can get people to the top of the Hogwarts train! ").
Friedman, too, remembers a strange feeling of ease about the process. "It was one of the easiest shows I've ever produced," she says. "I've had harder gigs with throws of three, it was a total joy. "Even Rowling echoes this feeling." I can not tell you how much I liked doing that, "she said. "It was the only one 39, one of the happiest experiences of my life, working with [John and Jack] I loved it from beginning to end. "
The only person, in fact, who has a different memory of this period seems to be Thorne. "There were difficult moments!" he exclaims. "There were times when the mountain seemed very, very big, when I was actually writing, I was getting pretty good in blind denial, but I would be in the shower, walking down the street, and I was suddenly thinking, & What can I do? How can I write a play Harry Potter ? It's crazy !!! "
What did it saved, he says, is Rowling. "I did a lot of adaptations, I worked with quite a lot of authors, and I tell you, it is made of gold." It's a surprise, I say: I've always thought that Rowling seemed to be a reserved person, quite protective of her creation. I did not think I was extremely generous with his collaborators. "Well, I think she's someone who, when she finds a relationship in which she believes, she'll support him," Thorne says.
"It's like that she's nice," he concludes. "She knew that when [script was published] would not be written by her, I would have a little perspective, she dedicated me to it, she was the one who gave me her imprimatur I will never forget it. "
From left to right, the director of Cursed Child, John Tiffany, JK Rowling and the author of the play, Jack Thorne, at the opening of Broadway Photo: Getty Images
Given Reception Harry Potter and the Cursed Child received it is hard to believe that anyone involved in his production knew that it would be a success before the opening night. "We knew it was beautiful and we looked amazing," says Friedman. "But we are not the audience, so we invited a few hundred fans to a dress rehearsal." She shudders and stretches an arm. "I literally have goosebumps in memory, seeing her through their eyes will always be one of the most remarkable days and nights of my life." She shakes her head. at that time, we did not know what we had. "
Shortly after my plane takes off from London and heads for France (French, Breton, Basque, Catalan), I sit down with Phoenix opens in front of me, thinking about this dress rehearsal, and about Rowling.I wonder if she felt like Friedman, or if she knew what they had: a successful play, certainly, maybe a great game or maybe the defining game of a generation.She, better than almost everyone alive, knows that such things are possible
Since Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opened, Rowling publicly announced that it marks the definitive end of the history of e Harry Potter This sounds like an appropriate finale: dramatic and unexpected, full of love and loss and polyjuice. What Harry Potter will make of him in the years – perhaps decades – to come is uncertain. Mais Rowling semble heureuse de ce qu'elle a créé avec Colin, Sonia, John et Jack.
«C'est mon monde», a-t-elle toujours dit, «et je peux faire ce que j'aime. Et elle l'a fait
Amanda Hooton s'est rendue à Londres avec la permission de Harry Potter et l'Enfant Maudit .
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